Desiccating apparatus



A. D. ROBINSON.

DESICCATING APPARATUS. V v APPLICATION FILED NOV. II. 19m.

Patented Feb. 10', 1920.

IVIII M\ W \M\ STATES ARTHUR D. ROBINSON, OF

LOGAN, WEST VIRGINIA.

DESICGATING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 10, 1920.

Application filed November 11, 1918. Serial No. 262,098.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ARTHUR D. ROBINSON, acitizen of the United States, residing at Logan, in the county of Loganand the State of West Virginia, have invented a new anduseful'Improvement in Desiccating Apparatus, of which the following is afull, clear, and exact specification, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part thereof.

My invention relates to desiccating apparatus used for the purpose ofdrying eggs or similar substances in which the substance to be dried isapplied to a moving belt while in a batter-like condition, and thencarried by the belt into and through a hot air chamher where the batteris subjected to the action of hot air and thereby dried. My inventionrelates particularly to the means whereby the hot air is distributed andmade to come in contact with the substance to be dried in such a waythat the drying is substantially uniform throughout the whole width ofthe carrying belt.

The object of my invention is to provide means whereby the air is m adeto flow from a hot air chamber onto the carrying belt in such a way thatthe substance to be dried will be quickly and uniformly dried throughoutthe width of the belt; and a further object of my invention is toprovide means whereby the moving belt is retained in position as itpasses through the drying chamber, thus avoiding friction and the lossof material due to imperfect drying or to the belt running out of placewhile in the drying chamber.

My invention is fully shown in the accompanying drawings where similarnumerals are used to designate similar parts.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an apparatus embodying myinvention;

' Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view through the apparatus on the line22 of Fig. 1; Figs. 3 and 4e are enlarged views showing reversed and indetail certain features of construction of the apparatus; and Figs. 5and 6 are enlarged views of the device used for guiding the belt.

Referring-to the figures, 1- is the frame of the apparatus in which ismounted an endless belt 2. This belt is mounted on drums 3 and 4 auditis driven by means of a driving belt, not shown, which passes over thedriving pulley 5 mounted on the shaft of the drum 4. In the apparatusthe belt is shown as moving in the direction indicated by the arrows,that is to say, the upper part of the belt moves from the right towardthe left and the lower part moves from the left toward the right. Thebelt is supported at intervals by means of rollers 6, and in order tocause the belt to run true through the apparatus guides 7 are provided.I have shown only two sets of these guides, one for the upper run of thebelt and one for the lower .run, but it is evident that as many maybeprovided as the length of the belt makes necessary or desirable. 8 is asupply pipe through which the eggs to be desiccated are brought in abatter condition to the apparatus, and from which pipe the egg batter isfed onto the upper surface of the belt 2 by means of a suitable nozzle9. It is to be understood that special devices are provided whereby theeggs to be dried are reduced to a batter-like condition and caused tomove from a source of supply through the pipe 8 up to the apparatus, butsince these devices form no part of my invention they are not shownhere. It is also to be understood that the nozzle 9 may be of myconvenient or proper shape to as nearly as possible evenly apply thebatter to the surface of the belt 2. After the batter has been dried itremains adhering to the belt and is scraped therefrom by means ofsuitable scrapers 10, which are arranged to be brought into contact withthe belt when desired. 11 is a hot air chamber to which heated air issupplied, preferably, under a slight pressure, and which has a bottomwall 12 which lies close to and immediately above the upper surface ofthe upper run of the belt 2. In order'that the batter applied to thebelt 2 may be uniformly andquickly dried it is necessary that the hotair be made to pass from the chamber 11 through the wall 12 so as toimpinge upon the upper surface of the belt 2 in as nearly as possible auniform manner throughout the whole width of the belt and without sufficient force to cause the dried material to be dislodged and blown fromthe belt. To accomplish this I form in the wall 12 a plurality of rowsof perforations 13 extending crosswise of the length of the belt, andthese perforationsl preferably make rectangular in shape. I have foundby actual trial that it is preferable to make the perforations of onerow alternate with those of adjacent rows, and I have also found thatbetter and more uniform results in drying are obtained if I place infront of each aperture a de fleeting plate 14. By in front of the apeture I mean on that side of the aperture which lies closest to that endof the chamber 11 toward which the hot air is flowing. 1 11 ve foundthat it is not necessary to make these deflectors very high or to makethem higher for some rows than others. A cheap and effective manner ofapplying these de flectors is that shown in Figs. 8 and 4, where thedeflectors 14 are shown made of a strip of metal bent longitudinally soas to have a base portion 17 at right angles to that part which acts asa deflector, and by means of this base portion 17 the strip may befastened to the upper surface of the wall 12 so that a single strip willact as a deflector for a whole row of apertures. This construction ischeap and very effective and is preferable to a construction in whichthere is a single separate baffle plate for each aperture. The air whichpasses through the aperture 18 in the wall 12 spreads out over thebatter to be dried on the belt 2, and because of its heat the batter isdried and the moisture is carried away by the moving air. The air movestoward the side edges of the belt and passes down over these into thechamber 15 and from this it passes out through the vent shaft 16. 1preferably make the apertures 13 elongated, and make those of one rowalternate with those of adjacent rows as shown in Fig. 4, and I alsopreferably make the length of an aperture substantially the same as orslightly greater than the space between adjacent apertures in theadjacent row. This insures that every part of the surface of the upperrun of the belt 2 is uniformly and equally acted upon by the hot airfrom the chamber 11.

In order to further insure the uniformity of drying of the batter put onthe belt 2 it is desirable that the belt shall weave sidewise, as itpasses from the drum 3 to the drum 4, as little as possible. And toprevent this weaving I provide guides 7. These guides are shown indetail in Figs. 5 and 6, and are applied to the belt in pairs, one oneach side of the belt. Each one of the pair of guides comprises astationary strip 20 to which is bolted by means of the bolts 21 top andbottom members 22 and 23, respectively. 24 is a contact member which ismounted so that it can move to and from the strip 20 between the members22 and 23. The member 24 is, preferably, el0ngated and provided with agroove 25 adapted to receive the edge of the belt 2. The member 24 isheld in place by means of bolts 26 which pass through the slottedopenings 27 formed in 24. Between the movable member 24 and the fixedmember 20 there are springs 28 which tend to hold the member 24 in placeagainst any edge pressure of the belt. These springs have their ends insuitable recesses 29 and 30 formed in the members 20 and 24,respectively. If for any cause the belt tends to weave or move side-wisethe edge of the belt will press against the bottom of the slot 25 andthus tend to move the member 24 side-wise against the fixed member 20.Movement of the member 24 will, however, be resisted by the action ofthe springs 28 and thus pressure will be exerted on the edge of the belt2 by which the belt will be prevented from weaving.

The groove or slot 25 into which the edge of the belt runs, not onlyprevents the belt from flapping up and down, but it also increases theresistance to the turning up of the edge of the belt. When there is noslot the edge of the belt can be turned up by bending the material ofthe belt only once, but when there is a slot the material of the beltmust be bent twice in order to turn up the belt, and even then the edgeof the belt remains flat or horizontal. The slot makes it just twice asdifficult to cause the belt to be bent upward by pressure of the edge ofthe belt against the guide; and the slot confines the pressure to theedge of the belt and prevents the under side of the belt near the edgefrom contacting with the guide.

The presence of the springs 28 makes the guides resilient so that ayielding force is exerted against the edge of the belt instead of anunyielding force such as is exerted by a rigid guide, and the forceexerted by the guides against the edge of the belt is a graduallyincreasing one that becomes greater the more the belt actually deviatesfrom its proper path. This yielding of the guide to accommodate itselfto the weaving of the belt while exerting a gradually increasingresistance to the weaving conserves the belt by reducing the wear on theedges and avoiding crimping or turning up the margins thereof.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In an apparatus for desiccating eggs and the like, a belt having ahorizontally disposed carrying part, a hot air chamber having ahorizontal wall in proximity to and above the carrying part of said beltand said wall having perforations therethrough arranged in rowstransversely of said belt, and deflectors in said chamber for equalizingthe flow of air through said perforations, each of said deflectorsconsisting of a strip standing upright in front of a row ofperforations.

2. In an apparatus for desiccating eggs and the like, a belt having ahorizontally disposed carrying part, a hot air chamber having ahorizontal wall in proximity to and above the carrying part of said beltand said wall having perforations therethrough arranged in rowstransversely of said belt with the perforations of one row alternatingwith those of adjacent rows, and deflectors in said chamber forequalizing the flow of air through said perforations, each of saiddeflectors consisting of a strip standing upright in front of a row ofperfora tions.

3. In an apparatus for desiccating eggs and the like, a belt having ahorizontally disposed carrying part, a hot air chamber having ahorizontal Wall in proximity to and above the carrying part of said beltand said wall having perforations therethrough which are elongated inshape and arranged in rows transversely of said belt with theperforations being as long as the distance between the perforations andthose of one row alternating with those of adjacent rows, and deflectorsin said chamber for equalizing the flow of air through saidperforations; each of said deflectors consisting of a strip standingupright in front of a row of perforations.

4:. In an apparatus for desiccating eggs and the like, a belt having ahorizontally disposed carrying part, a hot air chamber having ahorizontal wall in proximity to and above the carrying part of said beltand said wall having perforations therethrough,

and resilient guides having slots adapted to receive the edges of saidbelt whereby weaving thereof is prevented.

5. In an apparatus for desiccating eggs and the like, a belt having ahorizontally disposed carrying part, a hot air chamber having ahorizontal Wall in proximity to and above the carrying part of said beltand said Wall having perforations there through, deflectors in saidchamber for equalizing the flow of air through said perforations, andresilient guides having slots adapted to receive the edges of said beltwhereby weaving thereof is prevented.

6. In an apparatus for desiccating eggs and the like, a belt having ahorizontally disposed carrying part, a hot air chamber having ahorizontal wall in proximity to and above the carrying part of said beltand said wall having perforations therethrough arranged in rowstransversely of said belt with the perforations of one row alternatingwith those of adjacent rows, deflectors in said chamber for equalizingthe flow of air through said perfo 'ations, each of said deflectorsconsisting of a strip standing upright in front of a row ofperforations, and resilient guides having slots adapted to receive theedges of said belt whereby weaving thereof is prevented.

In witness whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

ARTHUR D. ROBINSON.

